The boys are again on the town

Group Fortress 2 obtained a surprisingly massive replace this week, and it looks like gamers are flocking to it. Steam charts present Group Fortress 2 hitting an all-time participant excessive following the Summer time 2023 replace.

Judging by Steam monitoring website SteamDB, Valve’s team-based shooter climbed nicely above its earlier participant rely data with the Summer time 2023 addition to Group Fortress 2. Anecdotally, it looks like lots of people are hopping again on, too.

What’s within the content material replace, although? It’s truly quite a lot of group content material. Some time again, Valve had put out a name for Steam Workshop submissions for a seasonal replace. The Summer time 2023 replace seems to be to be the fruits of the group’s labor, bringing in 14 new maps and even totally incorporating a sport mode, VSH—Versus Saxton Hale—an asymmetrical battle between a crew and one souped-up Saxton.

Hopefully, this sort of renewed curiosity in Group Fortress 2 may see the basic sport get some extra consideration. Whereas it’s an enormous replace, it’s additionally a primarily community-developed one. And the group clearly nonetheless loves this sport, even by all of the years. It’s onerous  to think about many different (non-MMO) video games that might have this sort of fervent resurgence.

Right here’s the content material updates for the Summer time 2023 replace. For the total patch notes, together with the final gameplay and backend updates, head right here.

Group Fortress 2 Summer time 2023 replace patch notes

Summer time 2023!

• That includes 14 new group maps: Sharkbay, Rotunda, Phoenix, Cashworks, Venice, Reckoner, Sulfur, Hardwood, Pelican Peak, Selbyen, VSH Tiny Rock, VSH Distillery, VSH Skirmish, and VSH Nucleus
• Added the Summer time 2023 Beauty Case
  • Incorporates 25 new community-contributed gadgets
• Added 6 new community-contributed taunts to the Mann Co. Retailer
  • Taunt: Killer Joke
  • Taunt: Star-Spangled Technique
  • Taunt: The Head Physician
  • Taunt: Tuefort Tango
  • Taunt: The Street Rager
  • Taunt: The Killer Signature
• Added 20 new community-created Uncommon results
  • 12 new results for Uncommon hats
  • 8 new results for Uncommon taunts
• Added the Summer time 2023 Warfare Paint Case
  • Incorporates 10 new community-created Warfare Paints that make-up the Summer time 2023 Assortment
  • Has an opportunity to present a taunt Unusualifier as a bonus merchandise
• All beauty and taunt circumstances will grant Summer time 2023 Uncommon results as an alternative of their regular Uncommon results through the Summer time occasion. This doesn’t embody crates.
• The Summer time occasion runs by September fifteenth, 2023

Eric Van Allen

Senior Editor – Whereas Eric’s been writing about video games since 2014, he is been enjoying them for lots longer. Often discovered grinding RPG battles, digging into an indie gem, or hanging out across the Limsa Aethryte.

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